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04/15/2013

Through its Historical Archive, Magneti Marelli will be a part of the exhibition “Che storie! Oggetti, miti e memorie dai musei e dagli archivi d’impresa” (What interesting stories! Objects, myths and memories from enterprise museums and archives) scheduled from 11th April until 12th May 2013 at the Palazzo della Ragione in Milan.

The exhibition, which is part of the “Fuori Salone” events for the annual design furniture trade show “Salone del Mobile 2013”, and it is sponsored by the City of Milan – Culture, Fashion, Design - Palazzo della Ragione and by Museimpresa - the Italian National Association of Enterprise Museums and Archives, suggests a trip aimed at discovering rich collections that belong to approximately 50 Italian enterprise museums and archives, which show the public a picture of the evolution of our society in the last century, underscoring the crucial role played by the enterprise world in creating and enriching a country’s culture.

Magneti Marelli, through the collaboration of its Historical Archive, participates with a significant selection of historical findings and publications, in addition to many images and drawings in digital format.

In particular, Magneti Marelli can be found in the section dedicated to the history and recollection of companies, with a series of historical images of the production plant and of the company welfare initiatives, such as, for examples photographs of the 1950s summer camps organized for the employees’ children, which throw an interesting look on the industrial world, confirming the changes and evolutions in society in the years marked by a materialistic culture.

Magneti Marelli’s participation also contributes to tracing the origins and the evolution of corporate communication, through the display of a few copies of the legendary house organ entitled “Sprazzi e Bagliori”, one of the first examples of company magazine in Italy, published for the first time way back in 1924.

As part of the section “Discovery and wonder”, you can also discover the world hidden behind some of the items used on a daily basis. An example of this is the instrument cluster, the “dashboard” of our automobiles, a precious tool that is always in front of our eyes, and thus has become by now part of our everyday life. A multimedia drafting machine illustrates, through a specially-made video starting from historical images and drawings taken from the Magneti Marelli Historical Archive, the historical journey and evolution of instrument clusters, while special cabinets display unique specimens of instrument clusters, starting from the ones produce in the 1930s by Veglia Borletti and Jaeger, up to the most recent and technological models with reconfigurable displays made by Magneti Marelli.

The Magneti Marelli Historical Archives project began in 2008, and it started from the awareness of the value of the historical industrial heritage generated by Magneti Marelli in over 90 years of history. In 2010, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the Superintendency for Archive Heritage of the Lombardy region, issued the declaration of considerable historical interest, and in 2011 the Magneti Marelli Historical Archive become a member of Museimpresa, the national associations of firms that choose to enhance the value of culture in communication strategies, as an instrument of economic development and added value for companies. During that same year, the current Archive location was inaugurated: here, historical documents, photographic accounts and unique historical findings are kept on display.

The collection is constantly being added to. It currently includes an image and communication archive with more than 20,000 images, 500 videos and over 2,000 documents such as company magazines, brochures, advertising material and press reviews; a technical archive with product catalogues, manuals and technical drawings; a personnel archive that includes employee registers, minutes of the general meetings and financial statements. There is also a significant selection of historical products, radios and measuring instruments that have contributed to generating the fame of Magneti Marelli and of the legendary brands that have been part of it over time, such as Weber and Solex in the field of fuel supply and engine control, Veglia Borletti and Jaeger in the area of production of instrument clusters, Carello, Siem and Seima in the lighting sector, Radiomarelli and Magneti Marelli itself in the field of telecommunications.

The participation in the exhibition entitled “Che storie!” confirms Magneti Marelli’s interest in initiatives that, by enhancing the value of the historical heritage, configure them as dynamic resources, useful to convey methods, know-how and cultures that are functional to the company’s growth and evolution.